Once again the great Seth Godin and friends are changing the language of marketers. I love when this happens so I hope it takes hold.

He's recommending that we stop referring to potential buyers as prospects and targets; rather we should refer to them as "citizens". See the post here.

While I love this word and agree with his motivation, doesn't this seem a bit B2C driven? That is, I'm not sure we should refer to potential B2B buyers as citizens.

What's the difference? When I think of a consumer in this context, I think of a person that doesn't need me, that has choices, that has power. When I think of a business in this context, there's less power. That is, while a business may not need me, they do need solutions to big problems to keep their business running. Citizen is a great word because there's this sense that they're just standing around and might never need to do anything other than eat and sleep. I have to make something that's great to get them to act.

Businesses aren't just standing around, they need to act to survive; they (in many cases) need me more than the consumer.